Self-Injury in Japanese Manga: A Content Analysis

Abstract

This study explored representations of self-injury in Japanese manga (graphic novels). A content analysis of fifteen slice-of-life manga published between 2000-2017 was conducted, focusing on forty scenes that depict eighteen characters engaging in self-injury. Most depictions of self-injury reflect a stereotypical perception of "self-injurer," a young girl cutting herself to cope with negative emotion. Characters receive informal support from friends and partners, while parents are portrayed as unsupportive and even triggering. An emergent trend was observed among manga targeting male readers to label selfinjuring women as "menhera"-mentally vulnerable damsels in distress-inviting a fetishistic gaze on the self-injuring female bodies.

Mentally Ill and Cute as Hell: Menhera Girls and Portrayals of Self-Injury in Japanese Popular Culture

“…However, self-injury has been explicitly thematized in Japanese popular culture over the last few decades. In a previous study, we conducted an extensive search of slice-of-life 2 manga (graphic novels) published between 2000 and 2017 portraying self-injury in everyday life context (Seko and Kikuchi, 2020). Across 15 manga we examined, the characters engaging in self-injury were predominantly young women cutting themselves to cope with feelings of despair, loneliness, or emotional numbness, replicating research on Anglophone media.…”

“…Images of self-injury now surround us, along with voluminous narratives of mental ill-health 1 in popular media. Studies have documented the growing number of self-injury portrayals across popular media including films (Chouinard, 2009;Trewavas et al, 2010;Danylevich, 2016;Bareiss, 2017), TV shows (Whitlock et al, 2009), young adult fiction (Miskec and McGee, 2007) and comics (Seko and Kikuchi, 2020). Alongside mass media, interactive and visual-rich social media platforms have enabled instant sharing of user-generated self-injury content at an unprecedented speed and scale (Seko, 2013;Seko and Lewis, 2016;Alderton, 2018).…”

“…While self-injury, with its enhanced visibility, touches many people's lives, the perceived meanings ascribed to this practice vary widely. Research on media portrayals of self-injury has revealed a range of implicit and explicit meanings attached to this practice, including emotional regulation, self-punishment, coping mechanism, interpersonal manipulation, self-affirmation, or resistance to oppression (Danylevich, 2016;Bareiss, 2017;Seko and Kikuchi, 2020). Although what self-injury means to the person varies across media narratives, there is a recognizable pattern in who engages in this practice.…”

“…On the other hand, manga targeting adult male readers (seinen manga) portrayed women who self-injure as mentally vulnerable, attractive, and helpless mistresses waiting to be rescued by male protagonists. Notably, many of those female characters in seinen manga were called menhera (a portmanteau of "mental health-er") that exhibited unstable emotionality, impulsivity, and sexual promiscuity, along with stereotypical self-injurious behaviors, most often recurrent wrist cutting without a clear suicidal intent (Seko and Kikuchi, 2020).…”

An examination of portrayals of smoking in graphic novels/comic books: A picture is worth a thousand words

“…A growing analytical literature exists around contemporary graphic novels. Graphic novels have, for example, been studied for depictions of violence 32 , the portrayal of disability 33 , and depictions of self-harm 34 . An extensive literature has also examined graphic novels as vehicles for health education 35,36 and health promotion 37 .…”